I have managed to build consistent traffic by using social networking sites. One social networking site that has not given me much traffic to date is Digg. I decided to solve this problem by writing this post.

I investigate how Digg works.

An explanation of the Digg algorithm.

Suggestions on how to use Digg.

Tips I found on how you can let Digg work for you.

Let's hope Digg works better for me after this research!

The right way to dig but not the right way to Digg, you dig?

How Digg works

Digg has an algorithm. It works by rating how quickly you get diggs. If you get diggs very rapidly, you are likely to get to the front page of digg. To get to the front page of digg, you need at least 60 diggs in one day. If you get 60 diggs in one day, you will keep getting traffic even after your story is no longer on the front page of Digg.

The Digg algorithm

The faster you get diggs, the greater your chances are of getting on the front page.You need to get 60 diggs quickly to get on the Digg front page. This is the crux of the Digg algorithm.

Digg has a ranking system. A digg from a Digg user with a high rank will count more than a digg from a Digg user with a lower rank.

The more comments and positive diggs you have, the more weight your story carries. This one is obvious.

Similar to Stumble Upon, a user who does not like your story may bury it. Again, if a high ranking Digg user buries your story, it counts more than a bury from a lower ranking Digg user.

Similarly, more buries are bad. The more buries your story gets, the less it's chances are of getting on the front page.

Digg also considers the ratio of submitted articles by users who digg your story. This means diggs from regular Digg users will be more valuable than diggs from less regular Digg users. I'm not sure how this differs from the Digg ranking, but Digg ranking probably has to do with how many stories you get on the Digg front page, and how often that happens.

Digg tries to balance the problem of powerful Digg users dominating front pages by considering the amount of Digg friends you have. If you have lots of Digg friends, you need more diggs to get to the front page than a user who has less Digg friends.

To me, it would be better to have lots of Digg friends, because the point of Digg is to build traffic. If you have enough Digg friends, you will not need to get to the front page of Digg to get traffic to your blog.

Suggestions on how to use Digg

The way to use Digg is to digg articles you like. Now, you might find Digg cumbersome because you need to go to Digg every time you want to submit a story. This is no longer the case, thanks to these two handy Firefox plug-ins:

Digg me later adds a small bar at the top of articles linked from Digg. This allows you to digg the article directly from your current page without returning to Digg. Note that also you nead Greasemonkey installed.

Smart Digg button allows you to see whether a page is already on Digg before you write a full 500 page submission with all the bells and whistles, only to discover it on Digg already. Quite handy!

How you can let Digg work for you

You need to add the Digg badge to your posts. You will notice that I have a widget called Syndicate Me. This widget is code that I got from AddThis. It offers quick and easy links to all the big social networking sites, Digg included.

If you do not wish to add another widget to your blog, you can integrate Digg with your site. You add the following JavaScript code to your site:

You put the URL of your post in place of URLOFSTORY. I've had some problems with this code on my site, because of the Blogspot platform that I use for hosting. It is less complicated to use AddThis and encourage your social networking friends to Digg your posts.

Now you have a comprehensive guide on how to build traffic with Digg. Digg it, if you will.

4 comments:

Pillar post content usually takes the form of tutorial style articles aimed to share your expertise by teaching your reading audience something of timeless value. And, I consider this to be an an excellent pillar post. Characteristics of pillar posts* they are longer posts* their content is timeless* their content is original and unique* they offer a clear value to the reader* they outline expertise around a specific topic* they attract links from other bloggershttp://onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/blogging-characteristics-of-pillar-posts/I'll be glad to refer my readers to it. :)

There are a couple things you should think about before jumping into digg. Realize that this is a social bookmarking site, and people will digg things just because they are 'cool'. If you're selling monetizing with your site, chances are that if you get to the first page on digg and get a traffic spike, the visitors are just going to glance around quickly and then leave. They're there to look, not to convert into customers or click ads. That being said, who doesn't like traffic spikes? I mean hey, they make you feel like you're doing something, right? And of course, getting spread virully through digg may be just the thing you're looking for… publicity

After I got a good hand on stumbleupon I turned to twitter. Now there are a handful of good friends on twitter. Now I'm starting to learn about digg and this your post is really helpful. thank you for these great suggestions and tools you've pointed. I'v bookmarked your site since it will be a reference when I'll be writing about digg in future.